1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to sensors and optical arrangements therefor. More specifically, the present invention relates to optical arrangements for sensors and arrays thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional staring sensor systems operating in the visible or infrared spectrum force a compromise between field of view and image resolution or sensitivity.
Persistent surveillance and tracking requires a wide field of view, high-resolution sensor capable of mapping out a large area within a very short period of time. For military and other applications, a next generation sensor for persistent surveillance might require both high resolution and wide field of view (FOV) such that it can identify potential targets over a large area within a short time period.
Although a single high resolution sensor mounted on a gimbal can perform this function to some extent. However, for most applications, such a system would require a considerable and unacceptable amount of time to accommodate gimbal settling time between image captures.
Hence, a need remains in the art for a system or method for capturing image data over a wide field of view with high resolution.